theflatline:Anastacya: I had this in my folders. May as well use it before I delete it.

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From the article ""I was told to provide my family tree and I didn't understand why I would have to if I had already grown up being told I was Aboriginal." "

Like every american claiming to be native american....

This is funny. I was told I had Native American blood in me, then my mother had this genealogy kick when I was a teenager. Turns out I do have Cherokee in me on both sides, so... I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule? Not sure.

Anastacya:theflatline: Anastacya: I had this in my folders. May as well use it before I delete it.

[img.fark.net image 360x270]

From the article ""I was told to provide my family tree and I didn't understand why I would have to if I had already grown up being told I was Aboriginal." "

Like every american claiming to be native american....

This is funny. I was told I had Native American blood in me, then my mother had this genealogy kick when I was a teenager. Turns out I do have Cherokee in me on both sides, so... I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule? Not sure.

Dolezal is still a mental case.

A Navajo chick I was seeing whlie in the Army told me that Cherokees are the "white Indians."

theflatline:Anastacya: I had this in my folders. May as well use it before I delete it.

[img.fark.net image 360x270]

From the article ""I was told to provide my family tree and I didn't understand why I would have to if I had already grown up being told I was Aboriginal." "

Like every american claiming to be native american....

Lots of people get an eighth or sixteenth due to a great grandmother desperate to get off the reservation. It's the same kind of thing that makes everyone in Europe cousins, bound to share ancestors a few greats up the tree.

Anastacya:theflatline: Anastacya: I had this in my folders. May as well use it before I delete it.

[img.fark.net image 360x270]

From the article ""I was told to provide my family tree and I didn't understand why I would have to if I had already grown up being told I was Aboriginal." "

Like every american claiming to be native american....

This is funny. I was told I had Native American blood in me, then my mother had this genealogy kick when I was a teenager. Turns out I do have Cherokee in me on both sides, so... I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule? Not sure.

Dolezal is still a mental case.

My grandma said I'm 1/32 Penobscot. I don't think she'd lie about it but our family tree has a big gap. One of her brothers worked on a family tree that covers our entry into the colonies back in the 1600s but only goes a few generations because that's all he needed to cover for his thesis. I have another tree from my great grandparents to my generation for the same line but that leaves a wee gap. Years ago, I randomly stumbled across an author who might have the gap. A web search pulled up an unlinked page on her professional site. Her tree started with the same root ancestor and worked down into what would probably be the level of where my 1/32 would come from. But life happened and squirrel, I lost her contact info and wasn't able to find it again. :P I guess she realized her personal genealogy notes were open to the public even if she didn't publish a link on her site.

A genealogist I talked to said that in the late 1800s, there was less of a stigma to be half-Cherokee than half-black, so a lot of children of master-slave "relationships" would pass themselves off as half-Cherokee and later married Appalachian whites. A century later, there's a lot of people who take those genetic ancestry tests and are surprised to see a little African instead of Native American.

I have Aboriginal heritage on one side of the family about six generations back. I don't look remotely Aboriginal apart from, as my friends say, a slightly "Abo nose". I've never been discriminated against because of my heritsge, didn't grow up in an impoverished or marginalised house, don't know much about my heritage, don't have any connection to the Aboriginal community (apart from a one-eighth Aboriginal ex who was whiter than most tuberculant Irish girls).... in short, I might be genetically 2 per cent Aboriginal, but 100% white male upper middle class background privileged.

I'd love to know more about the history and culture of my ancestors. But I'm afraid of being seen as just another person like those in TFA who are playing up their indigenous links to access better or exclusive government services.

A genealogist I talked to said that in the late 1800s, there was less of a stigma to be half-Cherokee than half-black, so a lot of children of master-slave "relationships" would pass themselves off as half-Cherokee and later married Appalachian whites. A century later, there's a lot of people who take those genetic ancestry tests and are surprised to see a little African instead of Native American.

Apparently you didn't see Big Stone Gap. None of us are surprised anymore.

A genealogist I talked to said that in the late 1800s, there was less of a stigma to be half-Cherokee than half-black, so a lot of children of master-slave "relationships" would pass themselves off as half-Cherokee and later married Appalachian whites. A century later, there's a lot of people who take those genetic ancestry tests and are surprised to see a little African instead of Native American.

Apparently you didn't see Big Stone Gap. None of us are surprised anymore.

In 2004, I spent a month in Tasmania with some friends who live there. I can honestly say I probably saw one person who wan't white the entire time I was there...so I find this article pretty believable.

A genealogist I talked to said that in the late 1800s, there was less of a stigma to be half-Cherokee than half-black, so a lot of children of master-slave "relationships" would pass themselves off as half-Cherokee and later married Appalachian whites. A century later, there's a lot of people who take those genetic ancestry tests and are surprised to see a little African instead of Native American.

Apparently you didn't see Big Stone Gap. None of us are surprised anymore.

Anastacya:theflatline: Anastacya: I had this in my folders. May as well use it before I delete it.

[img.fark.net image 360x270]

From the article ""I was told to provide my family tree and I didn't understand why I would have to if I had already grown up being told I was Aboriginal." "

Like every american claiming to be native american....

This is funny. I was told I had Native American blood in me, then my mother had this genealogy kick when I was a teenager. Turns out I do have Cherokee in me on both sides, so... I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule? Not sure.

Dolezal is still a mental case.

Yeah, sometimes it's really hard to know. My father said I had a Cherokee great great grandmother. I haven't been able to find records for her, but I haven't been able to find records of quite a few relatives of that generation.

/The other thing I haven't been able to find is any relatives who got here after the Revolution, they all seem to have gotten here before 1750. I found an Englishman who was a baker to the king, was subsequently transported to America, and got his revenge by being there when Cornwallis surrendered. The Lowland Scots and Baden-Württembergers don't have stories now, but they got here. (Ok, wasn't Baden-Württemberg then, but might have been either one.)//So being part Cherokee is plausible but not provable for me.///And meh. We're all Americans at this point. Doesn't matter if you were here before the boat showed up, got off the boat in 1750, or got off the plane last week. We're here, let's forget the realpolitik and make the ideal happen.

DarkVader:Anastacya: theflatline: Anastacya: I had this in my folders. May as well use it before I delete it.

[img.fark.net image 360x270]

From the article ""I was told to provide my family tree and I didn't understand why I would have to if I had already grown up being told I was Aboriginal." "

Like every american claiming to be native american....

This is funny. I was told I had Native American blood in me, then my mother had this genealogy kick when I was a teenager. Turns out I do have Cherokee in me on both sides, so... I guess I'm the exception that proves the rule? Not sure.

Dolezal is still a mental case.

Yeah, sometimes it's really hard to know. My father said I had a Cherokee great great grandmother. I haven't been able to find records for her, but I haven't been able to find records of quite a few relatives of that generation.

/The other thing I haven't been able to find is any relatives who got here after the Revolution, they all seem to have gotten here before 1750. I found an Englishman who was a baker to the king, was subsequently transported to America, and got his revenge by being there when Cornwallis surrendered. The Lowland Scots and Baden-Württembergers don't have stories now, but they got here. (Ok, wasn't Baden-Württemberg then, but might have been either one.)//So being part Cherokee is plausible but not provable for me.///And meh. We're all Americans at this point. Doesn't matter if you were here before the boat showed up, got off the boat in 1750, or got off the plane last week. We're here, let's forget the realpolitik and make the ideal happen.

That may be the case in America, but in Australia, the indigenous people are still treated like complete shiat.It's quite bizarre in this day and age.

We hate them because they are all lazy drunk thieves on welfare.We hate them because European civilisation was the best thing that ever happened to them and why aren't they bloody grateful?We hate them because they're not really Aboriginal, they're just a celebrity travel show guy milking it.We hate them because they look pretty white to me.We hate them because they keep making us feel guilty for how we've treated them.

Aboriginal Australians who've managed to carve out an ordinary successful middle class life tend to keep very quiet about it.

The idea that anyone in their right mind would falsely pretend to be Aboriginal for the upside is just insane.